Caroline, or Change: a legendary musical...- Page 2

[gymman]

Posted: 7/13/05 at 11:49am

Both "Follies" and "Sweeney Todd" ran much longer than "Caroline..."
Both one multiple Tony awards, so the comparison to those is not valid.

[uncageg]

Posted: 7/13/05 at 11:57am

The show is a masterpiece in my opinion. I was lucky enough to see it in May of 2004 with Ms. Pinkins. Lots Wife left me absolutely stunned. I was speecless when I left the theatre. HBO did film it and I have sent 2 e-mails asking if they plan to broadcast it or release it on DVD. I have gotten no response. Last year, someone that posts here said that they spoke with someone at HBO who was at the stage door and was supposedly told that HBO did not know what they were going to do with it yet. That's been just about a year ago. I am connected with the Denver Center Theatre Company and am suggesting it to the Artistic Director for next season or the following season.

[uncageg]

Posted: 7/13/05 at 12:22pm

I don't think that how long it ran, or didn't run, and how many awards it won or didn't stops it from being compared to Follies or Sweeney or any other legendary show. It's the show itself that makes it legendary. Just my opinion.

gymman - It's spelled "won" not "one"

[gymman]

Posted: 7/13/05 at 12:42pm

Sorry about the typo-thanks for pointing it out.

I was merely pointing out the logic of the comparison was faulty. The fact that the 2 shows won awards and ran for longer periods has everything to do with the logic of the comparison.
You would need to compare "Caroline" to shows which failed quickly on Broadway, and which won no awards, for the analogy to work as logical. "House of Flowers" or something of that type.
Updated On: 7/13/05 at 12:42 PM

[jrb_actor]

Posted: 7/13/05 at 1:44pm

CHICAGO was completely eclipsed by A CHORUS LINE when it originally was on Broadway. Look at it now...

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 7/13/05 at 2:33pm

Caroline's Anika Noni Rose won for Best Featured Actress, so it's not as if the show went home empty-handed.

I don't think the logic is all that faulty. All three shows were flops on Broadway and will never be long-running, financially successful mainstream shows. The fact that Follies and Sweeney lasted a year (and still lost money) doesn't somehow put it in a different category than Caroline, which lasted four months.

[SFJPS]

Posted: 7/13/05 at 2:39pm

Great show. Studio Theatre in Washington, DC is doing it next season.
http://www.studiotheatre.org/plays/index.php?type=4

[gymman]

Posted: 7/13/05 at 2:39pm

I intended no comment on the quality of the show, just the logic of the comparison; ST lasted more than a year, certainly. Both ST and Follies won multiple awards, not merely a supporting actress in a musical Tony. I just thought that other shows would provide more apt and valid comparisons.

[jrb_actor]

Posted: 7/13/05 at 2:45pm

OH GOOD GRIEF! We're splitting hairs!

[gymman]

Posted: 7/13/05 at 2:48pm

Maybe...but both "Follies"(522) and "Sweeney Todd" (55 apparently had more original audience appeal. "Caroline" ran for about 120 or so performances. That's a considerable difference.

Logic is often about splitting hairs, BTW.-

Updated On: 7/13/05 at 02:48 PM

[jrb_actor]

Posted: 7/13/05 at 2:50pm

It just doesn't freaking matter! Who cares? This thread was started to praise a show. Not scientifically categorize it!

[gymman]

Posted: 7/13/05 at 2:51pm

This is responding to post that made no sense in its comparison--that's the point. I have nothing whatever to say about the merits of the show.

[PJ]

Posted: 7/13/05 at 2:56pm

Gymman, you saying the show should not be considered classic is your opinion. Just as those who were praising it as being just that were expressing their's. Moving on.

[gymman]

Posted: 7/13/05 at 3:01pm

No--that's not at all what I am saying.

I hope it is a classic, and that we will all live to to Stephanie J. Block, Shoshanna Bean, Norbert Leo Butz, Eden Espinosa, and Rue McLanahan in the revival next year. that way,see, the show would pull an audience.

[GYPSY1527]

Posted: 7/13/05 at 4:19pm

"I hope it is a classic, and that we will all live to to Stephanie J. Block, Shoshanna Bean, Norbert Leo Butz, Eden Espinosa, and Rue McLanahan in the revival next year. that way,see, the show would pull an audience. "

I have no idea what you are talking about but thats okay.

Anyways, I don't think its particularly relavant how long a show lasted but the quality of the show itself. Caroline will be for me, individually, a classic always!

[Thenardier]

Posted: 7/13/05 at 4:29pm

I am not a fan of C,oC but I was in the store and was this close (::spreads out thumb and pink::) to buying the CD....I was looking for the HAIR benefit.

Anyway, I am not a fan of the show and $24 seemed like too much.

[Sumofallthings]

Posted: 7/13/05 at 5:59pm

It is not to much at all. The cast recording is magnificent. It is one of the most beautifully and truthfully recorded shows I have ever experienced. Twenty-four dollars is worth the emotional journey you will travel every time you listen.

Caroline deserves to be compared on the level of Follies or Sweeney Todd and I am glad it is being compared at that level. But a show like Caroline, Follies or Sweeney should not be debated on its commercial appeal, or lack thereof, it should be debated on its artistic merit. To do otherwise would be to sacrifice the very soul of the show. Artistry over commercialism, substance over extravagance, human emotions and feelings over mindless girls who got hit in the head by a stone from a "skybird"

[uncageg]

Posted: 7/14/05 at 1:56pm

Thenardier...did you see the show? Or hear the entire recording if you did not see it?

Updated On: 7/14/05 at 01:56 PM

[Sumofallthings]

Posted: 7/14/05 at 5:20pm

Bump for an amazing show.

[Thenardier]

Posted: 7/14/05 at 5:22pm

I saw the performance live at the Tonys and, um, yeah...I've seen the show.....

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 7/14/05 at 5:29pm

Pinkins was very ill and in vocal crisis during the Tonys and frankly should have been home in bed that night. As it stands, she missed the next week of performances to give her voice a chance to heal. It's one of the most intensely demanding roles in the history of musical theatre and Pinkins struggled throughout the run to maintain her instrument (and may very well have done damage to it).

Listen to the OBC album. I think it's on the shortlist of the finest musicals of the last several decades.

[Thenardier]

Posted: 7/14/05 at 5:33pm

Well, Margo, she still sounded like an angel compared to Idina that night.

And the T.V. definitely helped them both out.

No, I was referring to the music.


AKH, I have no will power. I picked it up, put it down, picked it up, put it down. And left.

I could see a show for 25 bux!

But...I am so poor and have to save my money.

Akh...if I were a dog, I'd be spinning around, trying to catch my tail.

[Sumofallthings]

Posted: 7/14/05 at 5:54pm

Your poor poor fool. You are actually judging a show by its Tony performance. Thenardier I expected more from you. You have no idea the power of "Lots Wife"

[etoile]

Posted: 7/14/05 at 6:35pm

I think a better way to phrase the question, uncageg, rather than asking if one saw the show is to ask, "Did you see in the theatre a live performance on stage?" Now that may seem as though I'm splitting hairs, but with some it's a necessary valid distinction.

[Thenardier]

Posted: 7/14/05 at 6:36pm

Well, etoile - the answer is no.